Yesterday afternoon I heard the news that James Doohan had passed. My wishes to his family, his friends, and to all my Star Trek buds out there.

CNN obit and Memory Alpha’s Bio of Montgomery Scott.

Previous employers have looked at me as ummm a “miracle worker” – and ahhh – I let on my secret once to my former boss, Rajiv: applying the “Scotty Rule” to project estimations. Never, ever, ever quote the time it would take to finish a project accurately. Pad it. Double and triple it.

From the TNG episode “Relics’:

Scotty: “Starfleet captains are like children. They want everything right now and they want it their way. But the secret is to give them only what they need, not what they want.”

LaForge: “Yeah, well, I told the captain I’d have this analysis done in an hour.”

Scotty: “How long will it really take?”

LaForge: “An hour.”

Scotty: “You didn’t tell him now long it would really take, did you?”
LaForge: “Of course I did.”

Scotty: “Laddie, you got a lot to learn if you want people to think of you as a miracle worker!”

From “Star Trek III: The Search For Spock”:

Kirk: “How long to re-fit?”

Scotty: “Eight weeks. But you don’t have eight weeks, so I’ll do it for you in two.”

Kirk: “Do you always multiply your repair estimates by a factor of four?”

Scotty: “How else to maintain my reputation as a miracle worker?”

Kirk: “Your reputation is safe with me.”

God bless and God speed.